Identify Your Clutter (Zen Habits)

We de-cluttered our garage a year ago, from obvious things like our college textbooks, photos (mostly duplicates from family), VHS tapes, ancient checkstubs, holiday cards we’d kept for years, cassettes, CDs, books, clothes, way too many old LPs, too many kitchen towels, way too much Tupperware, etc., etc.

Initially, we made 4 piles: Keep, Donate, Sell, Toss. Yes, we did have a “Not Sure” category … which is still with us. We took several loads to the thrift store, and gave semi-valuables to family, friends, neighbors. I can not tell you enough how freeing this was … especially once we got past the initial grieving & mourning … you know, finally throwing out that clay green ‘art piece’ I made in summer camp. [Take a photo of things like that… much easier to keep!]

Think: a New Year is coming. It’s perfect timing for a good purge!

[Photo taken of downtown window, by me, in Denver, Colorado, Oct. 2010]